i was on the simpson-bowles commission, nominated by the majority leader, harry reid and i served with 17 others, six by the president, and six from each the house and the senate, democrats and republicans, equally divided, and we considered the deficit crisis facing america, and it's serious. we borrow 40 cents for every dollar we spend. that's unsustainable. no family could continue with that kind of a regimen, no could could and certainly no nation can. so we have to have deficit reduction. but we need to do it thoughtfully. first, we don't want to do it too quickly. i met with a group downstairs from illinois, they are civic and business leaders from the quad cities area in western illinois. and we talked about the fact that we are in an economic recovery but a slow one, and one that is taking hold but slowly. and we need to take care that whatever we do doesn't jeopardize economic recovery. right now, downtown the federal reserve board is trying to keep the economic recovery moving forward and jobs created, and the way they're doing that is keeping interest rates low so it's cheap